creative statement
In Praise of Dancing
Saint Augustine
I praise the dance, for it frees people
from the heaviness of matter and binds
the isolated to community.
I praise the dance, which demands everything:
health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
who are in constant danger of becoming all brain, will, or feeling.
Dancing demands a whole person, one who is
firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is
not obsessed by lust for people and things
and the demon of isolation in his own ego.
Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates
with the equipoise of all his powers.
I praise the dance.
O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven
will not know what to do with you.
I am an artisan. A synthesizer. An endless combiner of stolen bits and parts. A craftswoman in pursuit of perfected craft. A learner compelled to dive deeper. My materials are tactile: fabric, paper, thread, paint, dye, sweat, bodies, hands, feet. My materials are intangible: words, minds. I write, sew, paint, dance, make dance, teach, muddle toward understanding why I must, why we must. I believe in bound community, in freed people, in transformation, in the one thing that demands everything. And so I am an artisan.
photo credits: Dorothea Lange, Richard Learoyd, Willy Ronis, David Wilson
text credit: Virginia Woolf
design: Lisa Ferrugia
all photos used for educational purposes only.
